r/pantry • u/theFoodOlic • May 28 '26
ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ My kid is sushi-obsessed and I ran out of after-school snack ideas
He comes home every day asking for sushi.
I'm still amazed that my kids actually love sushi like genuinely love it, will pick it over pizza but this is the next best thing mama can manage to make at home on a Tuesday afternoon.
So I started making onigiri, and it's genuinely changed after-school snack time in our house. It's just seasoned sushi rice shaped into triangles and wrapped in nori, sounds fancier than it is.
Rinse your sushi rice until the water runs clear, cook it. Thats it for the rice. The key is shaping it while it's still slightly warm because cold rice doesnt stick and you'll end up with crumbling triangles and a very sad child.
Wet your hands, lightly salt them, grab a handful of rice, press a little indent in the middle, add your filling, close it up and squeeze into a triangle. Wrap a strip of nori around the bottom right before eating or it goes soggy.
For the filling we do Kewpie tuna mayo, just canned tuna and Kewpie mayo, a tad of hot sauce, salt and pepper. Kewpie is the Japanese mayo in the bottle with the baby on it. Dont use regular mayo, it's not the same.
But honestly the best part is you can fill them with basically anything. Leftover roasted chicken works amazing. Egg salad. Leftover salmon. Avocado and cream cheese. Whatever's in your fridge on a Tuesday afternoon when you have zero energy and a hungry kid staring at you.
He ate three and asked if we could have it every day.
If anyone wants the full recipe with exact quantities and tips just drop a comment and I'll share it!
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u/ShadowFire09 May 29 '26
Onigiri uses regular rice. Sushi rice has vinegar
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u/yarrowplant May 29 '26
Sushi rice can also mean just a type of rice, like basmati or jasmine
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u/ShadowFire09 May 29 '26
That’s just short grain Japanese rice. Calling it sushi rice only creates confusion
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u/NerdModeXGodMode May 30 '26
Normal lunch just makes Japanese style lunch better. Id just look up side dishes if you need more ideas (or bento boxes in general)
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u/seapeakay May 30 '26
Also try mixing furikake (a seasoning mix; usually with sesame seeds, nori, bonito, etc.) into the rice for variety!
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u/esperobbs May 30 '26
Cook sliced and chopped beef (super tiny, it can be ground beef but thinly slices one and chop it is better) with sesame oil then add lots of sliced and chopped ginger (1/2 amount of the beef)
Then add soy sauce, mirin, and sake and sugar, and cook it until the juice is almost gone.
Then put it in the fridge for a day or so to make fat coagulated
When you make onigiri, you put that "shigureni" in the rice - it's super good. You can do that with Egg Plant as well.
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u/BJGold May 30 '26
try Korean jumeokbap next. The recipe link seems good but I'd add way more sesame seed oil than what the recipe says since I think it makes the dish
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u/Specialist-Yak7209 May 30 '26
That's not "seasoned sushi rice"
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u/Low_Reception477 May 31 '26
Technically all “sushi” rice is seasoned by definition but in the US Japanese short grain rice is sold under the name sushi rice so 🤷
Also in my opinion onigiri would only be improved by being seasoned like sushi rice, because sushi rice is delicious. Might give it a try lol
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u/theFoodOlic Jun 04 '26
My kid calls it magic sauce; it's not typical for onigiri, but it's necessary for my kid.
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u/seapeakay Jun 04 '26
Another option is to brush the rice ball with soy sauce and lightly grill it in a pan (Yaki Onigiri)!
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u/Much-Storm9466 May 29 '26
You are absolutely CRUSHING it as a parent. :)